


That Which Shouldn't Exist

by rinthegreat



Series: Random Hat Prompts [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future Fish, In case you were wondering, M/M, Pre-Slash, and i'm a sucker for MakoRin so any chance of those two being in a fic I will take, by the way this is focused more on SouHaru, haru is a mermaid, obligatory future fish fic, there actually isn't much of this pairing on here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 10:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2306495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke knows mermaids aren't real.  Everyone knows that, in fact.  Except, maybe, Rin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Which Shouldn't Exist

**Author's Note:**

> Lucky number 13 requested: "I really like SouHaru but there isn't really much to go off of. My favorite kinds are Merman AUs. I would really like to see a SouMako stripper story"  
> Well, number 13, I tell you what. I will do your first prompt and throw you back into the hat. Several people put in two prompts in one answer, so after all the prompts have been answered, the second requests will be answered. Sound good? Great.
> 
> This took me awhile. Obviously. Not because I didn't know what to do, but because it was really hard for me to compress it into a oneshot instead of transforming it into a massive multipchapter story. Hope you enjoy!

            Mermaids aren’t real.  It’s in irrefutable fact that everyone knows.  They are creatures of legend and were probably actually sea lions spotted from afar by sailors who had drunk too much salt water.

            But that didn’t stop Rin from running up to him, late one morning yelling about it.  “Sousuke!  You’ll never guess what I just saw.”

            “You’re late,” is all Sousuke says because Rin _is_ , and he had to sit and wait in the police car for thirty minutes before he got the _I’m on my way_ text.

            “That’s not important,” Rin argues as he slides into the passenger side.  His hair is pulled back, revealing a mouth-shaped bruise on his neck.  No wonder he was late.

            “Please tell Tachibana to keep your activities to a minimum in the mornings,” he sighs.

            Rin turns a deep red that almost matches his hair.  “I did – I wasn’t – shut up!”  He gets so flustered sometimes.  He stutters for a bit before relenting.  “Fine.  I’m sorry I’m late, but seriously: you’ll never guess what I just saw.”

            “I don’t want to know.”

            “A mermaid, Sous’.  Well…a merman.  I saw an _actual real life merman_.”

            Sousuke just blinks at him, unamused.  “No you didn’t.”

            But Rin has his jaw set in that way he does when he’s serious.  “No I really did.  He had a tail and everything.  Here.  Head over to the Iwatobi beach and I’ll _prove_ it.”  Sousuke sighs at him.  He’s not really in the mood to argue and Iwatobi beach is on their route anyway, so he turns the car on and heads in that direction.

            Rin was right about one thing: there was something going on at Iwatobi beach.  A crowd had gathered for some reason, and they had to use their sirens to even get a spot to park in the first place.  However, the point Rin was wrong about was the source of the commotion.  When the two of them manage to clear a path all they see is a naked man sitting on the sand.  He has short black hair and the bluest eyes Sousuke’s ever seen and is just looking around himself like he isn’t sure how he got there.  Rin’s mouth falls open.

            “But he was -!  There was -!  I’m not -!”  He yells in that way he gets whenever he’s flustered.  The not-merman just stares up at them emotionlessly.  Sousuke shivers.

            “Rin,” he says, eyes not leaving the man.  “Take care of the crowd.”

            His partner grumbles but does as he’s asked, leaving Sousuke to deal with the naked man on the beach.  He walks over and slips off his over-shirt.  He hands it to the man as he unhooks the handcuffs from his belt.  “Put this on to cover yourself.  You’re under arrest for indecent exposure.”

            The shirt just falls into the man’s lap, at least covering him up, but otherwise there’s no reaction.  _Oh shit_ , Sousuke thinks, _this is one of_ those _types._   Sometimes they get them.  Some of them are people who honestly don’t know the law and don’t have the mental capacities to understand it anyway, and those are easy enough to deal with.  Others, though, pretend to not understand him.  They might fake being foreign or mentally handicapped, but they really aren’t.  Those are the worst types of all, because he and Rin have to resort to violence 9 times out of 10, which is really not that fun when dealing with petty robberies and indecent exposure.

            Rin approaches him, now that the crowd has been properly dispersed.  He stands next to Sousuke with his hands on his hips, glaring down at the man.  “Oy.  Did you not hear him?  Put the damn jacket on.”

            Sousuke turns to him sharply.  “Rin, you know we’re not supposed to cuss at the people we bring in, even if they _are_ criminals.”  Rin’s too loose with his tongue, and they’ve run into trouble before because of it.  It’s really troublesome.

            “What?  He’s the asshole who pretended to be a mer- _mmph_!”  He’s silenced by a large hand on his mouth and Sousuke looks behind Rin to see a smiling face meet his own.

            “Tachibana,” he greets.  “I thought you were working today.”  The man works for the district’s firefighter squad, and he’s fully decked-out in the gear right now.

            “I am,” Tachibana replies pleasantly.  “We were driving back from a drill when we saw the crowd.  I figured it was you guys, so we pulled over.  Good thing we did.”  Rin’s glaring up at his boyfriend but not struggling.  On the contrary, his shoulders have relaxed from where they were hunched up before.  Tachibana nods to the man.  “Who’s this?”

            “I don’t know,” Sousuke turns back to look at him.  He hasn’t moved an inch from where he was before.  “He hasn’t said.”

            Tachibana releases Rin, who stays mercifully silent, and bends down to offer his hand to the man.  “Hello there.  My name’s Tachibana Makoto.  What’s yours?”  He has that angelic smile on his face, and apparently it’s enough to melt the other’s cool exterior.

            “Nanase…Haruka,” he says, and Sousuke thinks that this is another man of few words just like he is.

            The smile is still on Tachibana’s face when they shake hands.  “Nice to meet you, Nanase Haruka.”

            It takes Rin hardly two second more to jump between them and growl at Nanase.  “Back off, he’s _my_ boyfr -!”  Tachibana is standing with his hand over Rin’s mouth once again.

            “I apologize, Nanase Haruka,” he says politely.  “He may seem dangerous, but he’s all bark and no bite in reality.  If you talk to this nice man,” he points at Sousuke, “he’d be happy to take care of you.”  Tachibana bows and manages to make Rin bow too, and the two of them walk away.

            Sousuke would be irritated with Rin for ditching out halfway through the shift he showed up late for, but he seemed especially confrontational with this man, so it was probably a good thing he left.  He turns back to Nanase and sees him already standing up, wearing Sousuke’s over-shirt.  It’s a little big on him, which is good because that means it hangs down and covers the part that needs to be covered.

            Nanase extends his hands to him to be cuffed and Sousuke shakes his head.  “If you come willingly, I don’t need to cuff you,” he explains.  Nanase just nods his head and doesn’t say anything further, so he leads them to the car.  He holds the door open for the strange man, and the man just looks at it and then back at Sousuke, as if he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do.

            “Get in the car.”  Nanase nods and does as he’s asked.  Sousuke sighs as he gets in the driver’s seat.  This was turning into a particularly troublesome day.

            They drive in mostly silence toward the station.  Sousuke keeps looking back in the rearview mirror to see if Nanase is still there, and the other just stares at him unwaveringly.  It’s a little creepy, if he’s honest.  When they finally get there, Sousuke has them run a finger print scan.  Unsurprisingly, this guy has no previous criminal record.  He wonders if someone spiked his drink or something.  He leads Nanase back to the cell block.  “Protocol dictates you have to spend the night here before we can send you home.  You’re allowed one call.”  He opens the cell and beckons for the other to go in.  It’s a slow day, so the block is empty.

            Nanase doesn’t say anything in response.  He just walks in and stands there with that same expression.  Even if he doesn’t ask for the phone call, Sousuke considers doing it for him just so his family doesn’t worry.  “Do you have anyone you’d like to call?”

            Sousuke raises his eyebrows when Nanase’s only response is to shake his head.  “No family?  Or friends?  A lover even?”  He wouldn’t be pushing it, but something about this man concerns him.  He seems so…unaware of his surroundings.  “Are you sure?”

            “My family is still at my home.  I don’t know what a Call is.”  He says it like it’s a noun.  Sousuke’s brows furrow. 

            “Where is your home?”

            “The ocean.”

            He isn’t sure if it’s a smart ass response, because technically /all/ of Japan is in the ocean, since it’s an island, but the other looks so blank and serious that he thinks it’s not.  “Where’s your boat docked?”  That seems to be the only plausible way any human could live in the ocean.

            Nanase just blinks slowly at him.

            Sousuke sighs.  Clearly he’s not getting an answer from the man.  “Stay here.”  He pulls out his cell phone as he walks away and hits the number 1 on his speed dial.  It rings a few times before someone finally answers.

            “Hello?”

            “Tachibana.  May I speak with Rin?”

            There are some muffled grunts in the background, and Sousuke regrets his choice of best friend, not for the first time.  When Tachibana finally speaks, he can hear the satisfied almost-smirk the other adopts sometimes.  “He’s currently…indisposed.  What can I help you with?”

            If sighing were a disease, Sousuke would be dead by now.  “Tell him that when he’s done sucking you off, I need him to look up something.  I think there was a shipwreck recently or something.  This guy is acting seriously strange.  He claimed he was from the ocean and didn’t know what a phone call was.”

            There’s a frown in Tachibana’s voice when he responds.  “Like a storm?  I didn’t think there were any recently.  Is he ok?”

            Before Sousuke can respond, there’s a rustling on the other side, and Rin’s irritated voice comes through the speaker.  “I’m telling you, Sousuke.  The guy’s a mermaid.  Toss some water over him and his tail will appear.”

            “Rin,” Sousuke says smoothly.  “Ignoring the fact you aren’t supposed to be giving blow jobs while on the clock, mermaids aren’t real.”  Hanging around the redhead for most of his life made Sousuke much more blunt than he was originally.

            “I-I wasn’t!  Makoto shut up!”  Tachibana is chuckling in the background.

            “Can you two just come down here?  He talked to Tachibana before.  Maybe he’ll do it again.”

            “Give us five minutes, damn.  Hey!  Mako –“

            Tachibana’s voice interrupts Rin’s, and Sousuke realizes he took the phone back.  “We’re on our way right now.”

            Rin is still protesting in the background, so Sousuke just hangs up with a grunt.  They’ve been understaffed at the station lately, so whenever the cops on patrol bring in someone, they have to act as the guards.  He gets on the radio and tells the others on patrol that he and Rin are the guards today and that someone will need to take over their shift and sets it down when Mikoshiba says he’s nearby and can cover the area.

            Nanase is still standing in the same place when Sousuke walks back into the holding room.  He wonders if he should’ve called the hospital to send someone over to check him out for a concussion or something.  But Tachibana went through field medical training, so he could look over the strange not-merman when he gets in.  He decides he’ll take a nap till they get here.  Knowing Rin, they won’t even leave from wherever they are for a while.

            “What’s a blow job?”  Sousuke jumps and turns to see the other staring at him, his head cocked to the side.

            “What?”  He’s sure he heard that wrong.

            “What’s a blow job?”  The other asks once more.

            “Ask Rin when he gets in.”  His partner left him to deal with Nanase in the first place, so this was just a little payback.

            “…Rin…?”  Nanase asks slowly.

            Sousuke collapses on his chair and leans it back, kicking his feet up onto the table.  “The angry redhead who got mad at you for touching his boyfriend.”

            “What’s a boyfriend?”

            He grabs today’s paper and snaps it open.  “Tell you what: how about you file any question you think of away and ask Rin when he gets in.”

            They stay in complete silence after that until they hear Rin walk in.  “I’m telling you, the mermaid was real Makoto.  _That guy_ is a real life mermaid.  Merman.  Whatever.”

            Sousuke sets down the paper.  “It took you long enough,” he says to them as his partner walks in, followed closely by the firefighter.  Tachibana smiles apologetically at him, but Rin isn’t so polite.

            “Whatever.  Traffic was bad.  Hey, you,” he turns and addresses Nanase, who Sousuke is unsurprised to find hasn’t moved from that one spot the whole time.  The silent man turns his head to face Rin.  It’s a little creepy.  “Haru, right?  Are you a mermaid?”

            Nanase blinks at him, a little glare on his face, and Tachibana places his hand gently on the other’s shoulder.  “Rin.  He’s probably been in an accident and just can’t remember.”

            “I know what I saw!”

            Nanase is still holding his head cocked to one side.  “What’s a mermaid?”

            Rin growls in frustration, and Sousuke notices how Tachibana’s fingers tighten ever so slightly on his shoulder.  To his surprise, Rin doesn’t say anything aside from: “whatever.  Sous’, there haven’t been any storms recently.”

            “Rin.  What’s a blow job?”  Nanase interrupts.  There’s the ghost of a challenge on his face that makes Sousuke think he’s not _quite_ as challenged as he originally thought.

            Rin turns to him, his mouth wide open in shock, and Sousuke decides that it was definitely a good idea to make Nanase ask him those embarrassing questions.  “What did you just say?”

            “What’s a blow job?”  Nanase repeats.  “And a boyfriend?”

            Tachibana coughs discretely as Rin’s face turns redder and redder; the warning that he’s about to blow at any moment.             Asking Rin to stay in the back with him, when Rin clearly couldn’t get along with this guy to save his life would clearly be a bad idea.  “Thanks, Rin,” Sousuke says before Rin can find his voice again.  “You can take the front, I’ll handle things back here.”  He turned to the other.  “Tachibana, I was wondering if you could help me out.”

            Again, Tachibana tightens his fingers on Rin’s shoulder just enough to prevent the redhead from exploding.  Sousuke wonders if he could use that same trick on him.  Somehow he doubts it.  “Fine.”  Rin says instead and stalks off to the front.

            Tachibana smiles sweetly at Sousuke once he’s gone.  “What do you need help with?”  It actually surprises him the bigger man can put up with Rin all the time, but he supposes the only person who can is one with a record amount of patience.

            “You’re the one who got him to talk before.  See if you can find out his story.”

            This time, Tachibana directs his smile to Nanase.  “Nanase, remember me?”

            Sousuke swears Nanase blushes.  He would feel irritated that Tachibana keeps stealing all his potential love interests away, except he’s over Rin and doesn’t even have feelings for Nanase.  Plus that would be illegal.  The guy’s in jail, and he’s the guard.

            “I remember you.”  Jesus, it’s like he saved up all his emotion just to use on Tachibana.  Sousuke had to remember to ask Rin what it was about that guy that made people fall in love with him.

            “Can you tell me exactly what happened before you ended up on the beach?  You were in the ocean, right?”

            Nanase nods.  “I live there.”

            “Live there?”  Sousuke interrupts.  Nanase had said the same thing to him earlier but had never clarified.  “Like on a boat?”

            Tachibana turns around, and he’s wearing his _kindergarten teacher scolding face_ (Rin named it).  “Let me handle this please, Yamazaki.”  Sousuke makes a face at the back of Tachibana’s head as he turns around.  The guy is way too nice.  “You live in the ocean, Nanase?”

            Nanase nods solemnly.  “Yes.  Underwater with the other fish.”

            Sousuke can’t help himself.  “With the _other_ fish?”

            “Yama-“

            “Hey Makoto?  Can you get out here?”  Rin calls from the other room, effectively cutting Tachibana off from scolding Sousuke yet again.  Tachibana leaves, no doubt to get another blow job from Rin, leaving Sousuke alone with Nanase.

            They just stare silently at each other for a bit until Tachibana comes back in.  He has his full gear on now, and he looks like he’s in a rush.  “Call came in.  Let me know how it goes.  It was nice to meet you, Nanase.”  He explains politely before he runs off to wherever he got called to. 

            Great.  Now he’s stuck in here with Nanase and Rin.  Not that being stuck alone with Rin has ever been a bad thing, but that was the problem: they weren’t alone.  Movement draws his eyes back to the cell, and he sees as the other finally sits down.  He seems wobbly and uncertain.  Sousuke frowns.  The last thing they need is for someone to die in the cell, bringing his and Rin’s careers into question.  They aren’t bad cops, but even the smallest smudge on their record could follow them for the rest of their lives.  “Are you sure you’re alright?”  He asks Nanase.

            The other looks at him with that creepy, non-blinking stare of his.  “What are these called?”  He motions to his legs.

            “Your legs?”  He raises his eyebrows.

            “They feel funny.  Why are there two of them?”

            “Because that’s how you were born.”

            “No.  There used to be one, and it had fins.”

            “A tail?”

            “Yes, that.”

            Ok, clearly this guy is trying to be funny.  “Look, Nanase, only Rin is stupid enough to actually believe that you’re a merman.  I’m not falling for it.”

            “I’m not stupid, Sous’.”  He jumps a little in his seat and turns to see Rin standing in the doorway.  “We got a call.  Mikoshiba needs help.  I’m headed over there.  You ok here?”

            Sousuke sighs and stands up.  Rin gone means he needs to sit in the front.  “Yeah, I’m fine.  I can handle it.”

            Police shifts are long, and it’s days like today that make Sousuke wish he’d gotten an ordinary 9 to 5 job like most of the population.  He has to work eighteen hours, and most of them are by himself.  Rin pops in and out, but for some reason, he keeps getting called away by Mikoshiba and the others to help out.  Sousuke thinks they should just bite the bullet and hire a few more officers so they don’t run into this problem.

            Things inside the station are relatively boring.  He gets a few calls here and there, but aside from that nothing happens.  Nanase is quiet, and every time Sousuke goes in to check on him, he hasn’t moved.  Rin jokes during one of his short breaks that if the guy weren’t a mermaid (“he’s not, Rin, don’t be an idiot.”  “You’re an idiot, Sous’.”) he’d be perfect for him.  Sousuke grunts neutrally, not wanting to mention that the only type Nanase seems to have is Rin’s boyfriend.  He saw a guy hit on Tachibana in front of Rin once before.  He doesn’t ever want to see that again.

            Nothing exciting happens, actually, until a little after Sousuke eats his dinner of instant ramen.  The sun has long since set, and Sousuke’s nodding off.  It wasn’t that he ate a lot; it’s more that he’s bored out of his mind.  Rin’s gone again, helping out god knows where, and the last interesting thing Sousuke saw was the clock hit the hour.  A bang in the back jerks him from his sleep.

            In moments, Sousuke has his gun in his hand and he’s checking the scene in the cells through the small window.  He can’t see Nanase.  In fact, he can’t see anyone.  He kicks the door open and enters the room gun first.  He carefully makes his way to where he last saw his prisoner and turns sharply, gun pointed directly into the cell.

            Directly at Nanase, in fact.

            He doesn’t lower his gun immediately, though, because he’s too busy staring.  He’s probably going to owe Rin a thousand romantic dinners for Tachibana or something, because holy shit Rin was right.  Nanase has a tail.  An actual fucking tail.  And he’s looking up at Sousuke, seemingly confused as hell.

            “What the fuck?”  He asks eloquently, because he really has picked up a lot from Rin including his speech patterns, and it’s the first thought that pops into his mind.

            Nanase’s eyes widen, and that’s what finally reminds Sousuke that he’s pointing a gun at him.  He lowers it immediately.  “Sorry,” he grunts.  He just apologized to a merman.  Which reminds him.  “How are you breathing?”

            The other shakes his head.  “Hurts…”  He grabs his neck in the universal sign of _I can’t breathe please help_ and this time it’s Sousuke’s turn to widen his eyes.  He immediately grabs the keys and unlocks the cell door.  But that’s not enough.  Nanase can’t get out on his own.  So he reaches down and scoops him up, princess-style, and runs out of the station to his car.

            He puts Nanase in the back seat, because the tail is too large to fit in the front and speeds off, sirens blaring.  He radios Rin and tells him there’s a situation and he needs to go back to the station and mind it, then shuts the radio completely off so Rin can’t ask any more questions.  He’s really not sure what he’d say anyway.

            In the rear view mirror, he can see that Nanase is now passed out in the back, slowly turning blue.  He turns off the main road, taking side streets to the ocean.  They don’t even make it to the beach.  He pulls the car off to the side, near some rocks.  He pulls the merman out of the car and checks for a pulse.  He can’t find one, but that doesn’t mean anything.  After all, he doesn’t even know if mermaids have the same anatomy as humans.

            Sousuke keeps his hold on Nanase as he navigates his way by moonlight down the rocks to the water.  Carefully, cradling his head, Sousuke sets him in.  He’s ankle deep, but he pushes the merman out further.  He’s not really sure how much water they need.  He’s not even sure if this will resuscitate Nanase.  Sousuke wonders what would happen, if he couldn’t save a mermaid.  Would he be cursed?

            Nanase floats out a little further, showing no sign of movement or anything at all.  The suddenly, all at once, his body disappears below the water.  Sousuke makes an aborted move forward, trips over the rock, and falls on his knee, jarring it.  He pushes himself up and sits back, examining his knee in the fading light.  He doesn’t even know why he’s still here.  He should go back to his car and come up with a story before he meets Rin back at the station.

            His knee is fine, maybe a little bruised, but manageable.  Nothing permanent.  He’s scraped his pant leg, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.  Or just worn.  It’s highly unlikely anyone would care, and they haven’t had a formal inspection for some time now.  He stands up to leave when a splash draws his attention back to the water.  Nanase is barely a foot away, floating on his stomach and staring up at him.

            Sousuke turns back toward him, but a little too fast and falls again.  Walking on slick rocks in the dark is clearly a stupid idea.  This time he fell on his back, getting water all over his shirt and pants.  He huffs and sits up, then freezes.  Nanase’s face is inches from his own, his eyes staring directly into Sousuke’s.

            “Thank you,” the merman says finally.

            Sousuke releases a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding.  “You’re welcome.”  It comes out a little breathless, rustling some of the other’s hair as the words pass by him.

            Nanase closes his eyes (brilliantly blue even in the moonlight) and leans in, pressing his lips once to Sousuke’s.  The police officer doesn’t even have time to close his own or respond in any way before the other pulls back again.  Sousuke stares at him as Nanase backs away, taking his hand off his knee.  He hadn’t even known it was there in the first place.  Nanase nods to it.  “All healed.”

            Sousuke looks down at his pant leg.  It’s still as worn as before, so he lifts the fabric.  The bruise which had been forming before is gone, as is all the pain associated with it.  He looks up to thank the other, but he’s gone already.  Sousuke shakes his head, as if clearing it from something, then makes his way back to his car.

            When he turns on the radio, it is being blasted by Rin screaming at him.  He hopes Rin turned off the channel connecting him to all the squad cars.  “Calm down, I’m here,” he responds tiredly as Rin starts calling him every name in the book.

            He doesn’t even pause.  “Dammit Sousuke!  You can’t just tell me there’s a fucking situation and then fucking leave!  Do you have any fucking idea how fucking worried I was?  Fuck!”

            He chuckles a little.  Same old Rin.  “I’m on my way back now.  By the way, I think I owe you and Tachibana a dinner at your favorite steak restaurant.”

            “What?  That doesn’t make any fucking sense!  Sou –“

            Sousuke cuts the radio off again.  He looks out the open door at the stars and where they meet the sea.  Somewhere out there, he knows there’s a man with jet black hair and the bluest eyes in the entire world.  He wonders if they’ll ever meet again.


End file.
